Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Gladness of the Wholesome: The Buddha’s Teaching on Awakening Joy

With James Baraz recorded on January 15, 2023.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

The Buddha was known as The Happy One. Though Joy is one of the Seven Factors of Awakening, with so much emphasis on working with suffering, joy can sometimes seem frivolous or unspiritual. His teaching on attending to the ‘Gladness Connected with the Wholesome’ is a key aspect of Wise Effort and developing a loving heart. We will practice and explore together this foundation for awakening joy.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Lisa Ernst

    Exploring Karma, Choice and the Mind

    Karma is action in Buddhism, driven by intention. With practice we cultivate the ability to choose our response and our actions, internally and externally. We might think if our intentions are good our actions will follow, but our intentions are often under the influence of strong conditioning that prevents us from living our choices. But…

    Read More

  • Jill Satterfield

    The Procurement of Kindness and Sanity

    Jill writes: “We all possess the capacity to be very aware of our internal landscapes of body, heart and mind. And fortunately, with practice, we can tend to what we see, feel and know as it all arises in the moment, rather than days, months or decades later. It sure saves a lot of pain…

    Read More

  • The voiceless voice of awareness.

    How often does it seem that the master of your life is the conditioned mind? To what degree does this mind of limitation color your experience? When the conditioned mind reigns, it becomes difficult to hear the still, small, voice within. This voice could also be talked about as the voiceless voice of awareness itself….

    Read More

  • George Haas

    Meditation and Attachment Theory

    We will discuss Attachment Theory in the context of Buddhist Theravada Practice, exploring the traditional Buddhist path to liberation using descriptions of Attachment conditioning as a way to understand obstacles to practice. We will learn skillful ways of assembling an inner circle of close people to support your path to enlightenment.

    Read More

  • Antonia Sumbundu

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Antonia Sumbundu and Christopher Titmuss – Week of 27 October, 2025

    We’re delighted to have Antonia Sumbundu guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Awakening Courage: Embracing Being, Belonging, and Becoming

    A week of morning meditations to awaken the heart’s quiet, natural courage. Through presence, reflection, and stillness, these sessions invite us to rest in being – gently returning to awareness itself; to open into belonging – feeling our inseparable connection with the web of life; and to trust our becoming – the unfolding of wisdom and love through all that we do.

    In the rhythm of being, belonging, and becoming, we are invited to live with authenticity, tenderness, and wholehearted courage.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Equanimity: Finding Balance in Uncertain Times

    Equanimity is a highly-valued quality in Buddhist teachings. But what is it, and how do we cultivate it in our meditation practice? How can we access equanimity in daily life, especially in the midst of uncertainty, fear, and sadness over the suffering in the world? Howard Zinn from “The Optimism of Uncertainty”To be hopeful in…

    Read More